Pics: Accidents in India

This is a discussion on Pics: Accidents in India within Road Safety, part of the Team-BHP category; Originally Posted by manojgautham
This is what I saw on my way to Ooty on 29th August. Took the photos ...

This is one time I feel sorry for the truck driver, who (assuming my snap judgement is right) has been in a serious accident, and taken major damage to his employer's truck because the Safari driver overtook in the face of oncoming traffic.

That Safari accident is horrible. Entire body ripped apart. Unbeliveable. Only GOD should save us from these reckless drivers. They don't care for their own lives or for others.
These accidents occur in single lane road. A lorry or other vehicle will be moving slowly. Behind some other vehicle will try to overtake. But oncoming vehicles prevent overtaking. After some time they see some gap in the road and tried to overtake. Error of judgement and this is what happens

Saw this in the morning today on Link Road, Malad. How he managed to plant that truck in such a way is beyond my imagination Pole was ripped off from the ground with loose wires hanging around. Probably happened at night. There's no break in the median anywhere near the place where he crashed into it, so the driver was probably drunk, and possibly the acrobatic truck too.

Safari's bonnet passes clear of truck under its overhang, left A-pillar gets hooked to truck's right trailing edge. Something like this...

Truck continues to brake as Safari continues to accelerate. A-pillar gets sliced off, roof rips off, all in a fraction of a second. Force of impact pushes truck on to the bridge wall, impact causes front axle of truck to tear off.

No apparent damage to right side of truck in the pics. Right rear edge seems to be a little pushed in. Very little damage to Safari's lower part of left front door - it didn't connect with the truck's tyres. Rear left door ripped off when the roof came off.

Truck continues to brake as Safari continues to accelerate. A-pillar gets sliced off, roof rips off, all in a fraction of a second. Force of impact pushes truck on to the bridge wall, impact causes front axle of truck to tear off.

No apparent damage to right side of truck in the pics. Right rear edge seems to be a little pushed in. Very little damage to Safari's lower part of left front door - it didn't connect with the truck's tyres. Rear left door ripped off when the roof came off.

What do you think?

From the impact marks on the Safari it is obvious that whatever hit it was moving from front to back in relation to the car. This is not possible if the Safari was cutting back in behind the truck - the impact would then have been back to front on the car.

One alternative scenario to what SS-traveller has proposed is that the truck suddenly swerved, slowed or braked perhaps due to his front axle coming loose and the Safari swerved to the right to avoid hitting the lorry and almost made it but got snagged on the hooks at the rear of the lorry. (I am mortally afraid of those hooks, chains etc. at the extremeties of Indian lorries).

I like this hypothesis because it explains how a glancing blow from a 1.5 tonne Safari sent a fully loaded 14 tonne truck flying. In this scenario the Safari did not cause the accident to the truck, on the other hand the truck suffered a mechanical failure and the Safari was an unwitting victim (the dangers of tailgating - chapter 1).

What is the truth? Did the Safari do it? Was the truck the aggressor not the victim? Catch up with the truth after a short commercial break!!

What is the truth? Did the Safari do it? Was the truck the aggressor not the victim?

The Safari was obviously going much faster than the truck - it's stopped with its roof removed perhaps a hundred yards ahead of the truck.

Likely the truck would have suddenly panic-braked when he realised the Safari was nosing in to his right but the road suddenly narrowed down at the culvert, so he (the truck) had no space to pull over to the left.